Activist and actress: Meghan Markle before she met Prince Harry

The issue of racism was also raised after Princess Michael of Kent apologized after coming under fire for wearing a controversial Blackamoor brooch to a Buckingham Palace lunch attended by Markle. According to a friend, she is begging him to change his mind and walk her down the aisle as planned.

The TMZ websitereported on Monday that he had decided not to attend the glittering wedding at the castle, the home of English and British monarchs for nearly 1,000 years.

Mr Markle also said his eldest daughter, Samantha, who has repeatedly spoken negatively about Ms Markle in the press, had had no real relationship with her as an adult and no knowledge of her relationship with Prince Harry.

Kensington Palace said when details of the cake were unveiled: "Prince Harry and Ms Markle have asked Ms Ptak to create a lemon elderflower cake to incorporate the bright flavours of spring".

Meghan Markle, the fiancee of Britain's Prince Harry, attends the Dawn Service at Wellington Arch to commemorate Anzac Day in London, Britain, April 25, 2018. In this interview Thomas also mentioned he'd suffered a heart attack the previous week, but that wasn't why he was backing out of the wedding.

Markle threw the wedding plans into confusion earlier this week when he said he would not attend the May 19 nuptials because he did not want to embarrass his daughter or the royal family after reports he had staged pictures with a paparazzi photographer for a fee. "She and Prince Harry are begging for people to give him some space. It was an unbelievable amount of stress - by his report they were stabilising him", she said.

Kirsty O'Connor PA Images via Getty Images

If monoculture feels like one of those quaint concepts that went out of style with the fragmentation of media some three decades ago, the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would at least seem to challenge conventional wisdom that a single cultural event can no longer capture our collective attention.

Still, Markle's media experience, gained during her career as an actress, has been evident from the start. This weekend, reports in the London Times and The Mail on Sunday said that Markle was not only staging the portraits with the paparazzi, but getting paid for them.